While last year’s New Pokémon Snap was an evolution of the original Nintendo 64 Pokémon Snap in many ways, it missed an opportunity to introduce a Pokémon feature to the original’s formula that’d fit naturally into a photography simulator. That isn’t to say that how the Nintendo Switch outing builds on expectations set by the original isn’t substantial. Across over a dozen courses with branching paths, separate versions for different times of day, and small additions of events and Pokémon via leveling up as the player becomes accustomed to their patterns, New Pokémon Snap includes a surprisingly sizable Pokédex and array of photo opportunities to encounter. But what makes the absence of this particular feature surprising is that it’s been in the series for quite a long time.
Despite its longevity, the feature in question isn’t as old as the original Pokémon Snap, debuting in Pokémon Gold and Silver in November 1999, well after Pokémon Snap‘s release in March of that year. Though at least one instance of a similar concept did exist in the anime by that time, a modern Pokémon fan playing the original Pokémon Snap via its Nintendo Switch Online arrival needn’t be too surprised by its absence.
But the absence of Shiny Pokémon from New Pokémon Snap stands out given not only their existence in modern Pokémon but that the game emphasizes rarity in scoring a player’s shots. 100% completion of the game requires a player to take four different ranks of photos of each Pokémon species. For the most part, multiple kinds of shots qualify for each star ranking. Shiny Pokémon would fit into New Pokémon Snap‘s legendary and mythical gameplay encounters – even with minimal change or addition to the game as it currently exists. All it could take is switching the model of even one common Pokémon with a Shiny that’d result in an extra high-starring photo to add to the reward and sense of discovery in unlocking a more obscure path on a course for the first time.
Pokémon Snap’s Lack Of Shinies Stands Out In Modern Pokémon
New Pokémon Snap would be far from the only Pokémon game to directly acknowledge the existence of Shiny Pokémon if it included them. Most mainline Pokémon games include NPCs in their towns who state they’ve heard that Pokémon can come in different colors. Pokémon Legends: Arceus includes a mission that tasks the player with investigating and catching a Shiny Ponyta, and Pokémon that spawn via Legends: Arceus‘s mass outbreaks have boosted Shiny odds to the point that the game’s considered the easiest franchise entry to catch Shinies in to date. As part of its monthly Community Days, mobile game spinoff Pokémon GO increases both regular spawn rates and Shiny encounter rates for a specific Pokémon per event. Shinies have grown increasingly commonplace in the Pokémon series and community since their 1999 introduction.
But while this continuously growing familiarity may increase the likelihood that Shinies will appear in any future Pokémon Snap games, it still isn’t guaranteed. Amidst all its content, New Pokémon Snap omitted the original game’s instances of triggering Pokémon evolution, an instrumental feature of the broader series that it’d be reasonable to bring back. The Pokémon series’s culture and country-based regions have expanded its world with each generation, and a world travel photography-themed Pokémon Snap could see players photographing Dynamaxed Pokémon in Galar and Z-Moves in action in Alola. Shinies are just one option that another Pokémon Snap offering would have to build on and enrich prior games’ photography experience the way New Pokémon Snap did with its predecessor.
